Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported Rollapalooza 3! Peace and Love, people!

Another successful Rollapalooza was held last May 17, 2009 at the Martial Arts Center in the Ateneo. The organizers would like to thank all the teams who participated and supported the event: Submission Sport Philippines, Hybrid Yaw-Yan, Gracie Barra Philippines, Yaw-Yan Kampilan, Sambo Association of the Philippines, JMC MMA and Team VPF.

Special thanks to the following people who made the event possible: Dr. Alex Torres III and the rest of the Loyola Schools PE Department, the people from the Ateneo Judo Association, Nyko Maca, ND Fernandez, Dhan Samson, Gully Go, Kathy Duque and the rest of the VPF crew.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Here are some pictures of Gully's trip to Japan and the Paraestra Gyms, below is a small write up he made for all of us. ENJOY, GUYS!

Paraestra Visit by Gully Go

During my family vacation in Tokyo, I had a chance to roll at Paraestra Gyms in Koga and Koiwa. The guys I had an opportunity to meet at Paraestra were a mix of brown belts, All-Asia BJJ champions, MMA competitors, Kettle Bell instructors, Judo players, female purple belts and casual (but dangerously slick) jiujitsu aficionados. They were all very welcoming and accommodating; no pretentious attitude or egos here. I was unable to attend the full sessions, so I missed the lessons but was able to spar instead. That was a tremendous learning experience, and was well worth the train commute to the gyms.

A fellow pinoy BJJ practioner, Ramil Tolentino (three-stripe bluebelt), was kind enough to introduce me to his teammates there. After which he so generously footlocked and choked me during sparring. J Ramil gave me some tips on proper Japanese mat etiquette, open-guard entry and a Monson choke (which I still have to work on). If any of you are headed to Tokyo, let us know so we can link you up with Ramil.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Here is Pons' match against James Baldwin, one of his three wins on the way to bagging the silver medal in the U65kg Blue Belt division of the Pan-Asian BJJ Championships 2009.

Pons had been out of action for over a year and had returned to training only a few months before this competition. After undergoing a knee surgery for the first time in his life, this is also Pons' first tournament after having his knee repaired.

Pons' gameplan is a classic example of strategy, adaptation, discipline, humility and courage applied in our beloved sport of Jiu-jitsu.

To date, he has won 17 matches via his signature submission, "The Birdbar" or "The Pons" only this time, he executes it from a half-guard sequence instead of a takedown sequence to adjust his game and accommodate his recovering knee.

Humble as he is, he will always claim that he is not that good anymore because of his surgery, but like all his team mates say, "THE PONS NEVER LEFT!!!"

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